topic Re: 31 Point All Zero Penalty in Understanding FICO® Scoring

31 Point All Zero Penalty

Varsity_Lu — Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:35:48 GMT

My wife's Experian FICO 8 just dropped an astonishing 31 points due to the all zero penalty. She went from 773 to 742. Totally my fault as I just didn't pay attention to the statement cut dates. It will bounce back and I know it's not really a big deal for us (we are a cash-only family and have no loans, so our credit score is just for funsies), but I thought the data point was worth noting.

Re: 31 Point All Zero Penalty

FICOdawg — Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:21:15 GMT

So is the game to just rollover $20 on a card continuously?

More evidence of FICO absurdity.

Re: 31 Point All Zero Penalty

Thomas_Thumb — Sun, 23 Feb 2025 14:50:29 GMT

Never "rollover". Always PIF statement balances in full. The easy way to avoid the penalty associated with: "No recent revolving activity" is to allow charges to report on monthly statements.

* I am not an AZE1 practioner. I do adhere to PIF.

Re: 31 Point All Zero Penalty

markbeiser — Sun, 23 Feb 2025 15:36:03 GMT

You can't be going around not owing any banks money, BAD debit slave!🤪

Re: 31 Point All Zero Penalty

SouthJamaica — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 20:45:35 GMT

@Varsity_Lu wrote:
My wife's Experian FICO 8 just dropped an astonishing 31 points due to the all zero penalty. She went from 773 to 742. Totally my fault as I just didn't pay attention to the statement cut dates. It will bounce back and I know it's not really a big deal for us (we are a cash-only family and have no loans, so our credit score is just for funsies), but I thought the data point was worth noting.

Yeah, it's a data point worth noting. Ugh.

Re: 31 Point All Zero Penalty

Realist — Sun, 02 Mar 2025 07:09:48 GMT

Thanks for the datapoint.

I suspect there has to be more to this as to why you were dinged that much. We always pay off our balances every month, and we're always 800+ consistently. 820 last I checked. Usually, even with negatives we seem to stay the same or go up.

I've only recently decided to toss the bankers their tiny scraps of meat, leaving $10-$20 to report on a single card. I want to see if there's any impact. Routinely bounce betwee 820-839, and can't seem to make it move both up or down, regardless of the negatives I add to the account.

Re: 31 Point All Zero Penalty

Varsity_Lu — Sun, 02 Mar 2025 11:52:38 GMT

@Realist wrote:
Thanks for the datapoint.

I suspect there has to be more to this as to why you were dinged that much. We always pay off our balances every month, and we're always 800+ consistently. 820 last I checked. Usually, even with negatives we seem to stay the same or go up.

I've only recently decided to toss the bankers their tiny scraps of meat, leaving $10-$20 to report on a single card. I want to see if there's any impact. Routinely bounce betwee 820-839, and can't seem to make it move both up or down, regardless of the negatives I add to the account.

Pretty sure it's only the one factor. She hasn't had any inq or new accounts, nothing dropped off, and all her account age metrics improved. Her utilization is the only thing it could be.

Re: 31 Point All Zero Penalty

FicoMike0 — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 03:54:11 GMT

Let us know if she gets it all back.

Re: 31 Point All Zero Penalty

Varsity_Lu — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 10:58:56 GMT

@FicoMike0 wrote:
Let us know if she gets it all back.

She gained 4 points a few days ago, but I am pretty sure she just had an inquiry from last Feb fall off. She is still showing 0% utilization. I'll update again in a week or two once some statements cut for the new month.

Re: 31 Point All Zero Penalty

Varsity_Lu — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 01:20:19 GMT

One of her cards just reported a $52 balance a few days ago and her score jumped back up to 772. So she initially lost 31 points, then gained back 4 for some reason a few days later, and then gained back 26 once she was no longer reporting all zeros.

Re: 31 Point All Zero Penalty

Pppoolboy — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 03:25:34 GMT

@FICOdawg wrote:
So is the game to just rollover $20 on a card continuously?

More evidence of FICO absurdity.

Certainly not. Always PIF.

Here's a link to my explanation as to why scores are dinged when there's no monthly balances to report:

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/What-will-my-credit-drop-to-when-I-pay-my-car-off-a-year-early/m-p/6815077#M205570

I understand that people want to rant against FICO scores but all those rants seems a bit... emotional?

If you're getting emotional about a statistical algorithm... check your priorities?

Do you really think these credit scoring algorithms are not utterly scrutinized by not only the feds but a whole bunch of other third parties:

https://www.fhfa.gov/news/fact-sheet/fact-sheet-credit-score-models-and-credit-report-requirements

Do you really think that if these scoring models disadvantaged certain people or were unfair or secretly funneled money to banks, that entities such as, say, the Congressional Black Caucus wouldn't raise holy hell about them?

More reading: https://www.fhfa.gov/policy/credit-scores

Re: 31 Point All Zero Penalty

Anonymous — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 13:29:32 GMT

@Varsity_Lu wrote:
One of her cards just reported a $52 balance a few days ago and her score jumped back up to 772. So she initially lost 31 points, then gained back 4 for some reason a few days later, and then gained back 26 once she was no longer reporting all zeros.

@Varsity_Lu

Is it currently still sitting at 772?

Re: 31 Point All Zero Penalty

Varsity_Lu — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 14:09:57 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Varsity_Lu wrote:
One of her cards just reported a $52 balance a few days ago and her score jumped back up to 772. So she initially lost 31 points, then gained back 4 for some reason a few days later, and then gained back 26 once she was no longer reporting all zeros.
@Varsity_Lu
Is it currently still sitting at 772?

774, but I think the small jump is due to age metrics and an INQ dropping off.